Wow! Thank you for all of that information! I am going to try and increase calories on days that I work out twice and see if that helps. I already eat more on those days but perhaps if I add another snack in there somewhere I won't feel depleted on my scheduled day off. It's not every week but it does throw me off a bit. True, my body needs that recovery time so perhaps it's replenishing a deficit in the way it knows how? Part of the panic stems from when I was really heavy. Gosh, about 90+ lbs ago... I would have an "off" day and it would sometimes go from one day to two, then three... Then, being that it sometimes takes a couple days to reflect the binge on the scale, I'd be heavier and want to eat the frustration away. So I'm all about doing whatever it takes to not fall back to my old ways and I'm STILL learning. I have to hold myself accountable. It was years ago but can sometimes feel like yesterday. You all are a blessing. THANK YOU!

Our bodies don't work on 1 hour cycles. Work today must be paid for from the bank you built yesterday, and if you didn't eat enough to fuel today's workout, you're going to be hungry tomorrow. :)

Make sense?

Eat enough to support your activity level, includes lots of protein and fat (and complex carbs) and you'll do better.You don't have a Sparkpage, and so no shared trackers, so we can't comment on what you're actually eating, but it sounds to me like you haven't changed your eating plan even though you started working out more.

I had this happen to me about a week ago, after I had added a bit of running into my workouts. I woke up one morning and was just starving -- ate my usual breakfast, still starving, ate one of my usual morning snacks, still starving, ate a second snack and only then was OK. However, I did find that I then didn't need my snack in the afternoon.

I'm still trying to figure these things out myself, but I think it is probably just fine to listen to your body when things like that happen due to increases in exercise. It's not going to be every day. It may not even turn out to be the whole day (like what happened to me). I have to believe that with my body talking to me that loud I actually did need the food just then, and it's not unhealthy to give it what it needs. (Good food, obviously, not junk.)

I calorie cycle but I usually try to eat the most on my strength training days. One of my rest days is a low cal day and one (on saturday when I want to let my hair down) is a high calorie day. Some people design a plan based on the days they are the hungriest or least hungry following their body's natural cues.

Basically, you eat high, medium and low calorie days to equal out the same deficit at the end of the week had you consume the same calories every day. So if you average around 1500 cals, you may have 1-2 days where you eat near your maintenance calorie needs, a few 1500 cal days and 1-2 low cal days around 1200-1300.

You can use this calculator to figure out a plan: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

You have to calculate your daily calorie needs and then it will give you the option of a calorie cycling (zig zag diet) plan.

for me it's pretty normal to be hungrier on non workout days. think of it this way, whenever you see a crew repairing a road/elevator/building/anything it's closed so it can't be used. your body can work the same way. when you aren't working out, it's fixing up what you've already done and preparing for more. so needing a little bit extra to finish fixing or to build up stores for the next workout isn't outlandish. or something to feel guilty about.

if you feel guilty, average your calories for the week. if you're in range on average, a 500 cal higher day isn't anything to sweat, it's normal variation in diet. odds are that you'll be in range on average.

also, make sure you are making your loss per week smaller as you go along and adjusting your calories burned number so that it accurately reflects what you're burning in a week to make sure that you have set up the correct ranges for where you are.

I usually eat very well. I exercise regularly. I've increased my workouts to two a day on certain days. I drink a protein shake after each workout. Everything feels good. I have enough energy, crazy good energy. But every now and then I get a ravenous hunger and MUST eat eat eat. I'm not comfortable with that. Yesterday was my day off and I ate probably 500 more calories than I am used to. I feel guilty bc I didn't work out and ate like that. Today, I'll be back on and I don't have the same hunger. I guess my question is, how can I prevent this from happening again? I work hard, play hard and it's starting to show. Yay! Not cool with the guilt though. Can do without that. The guilt can start to mess with my head and may eventually trigger emotional eating. Any suggestions are much appreciated!

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